


Path of the Flame

by FieryOne71



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Major Character Injury, Portgas D. Ace-centric, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-04 04:32:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12763221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FieryOne71/pseuds/FieryOne71
Summary: How Ace met Sabo.





	1. Prologue (Teaser)

A lone figure lays alone on the beach under the shade of a tree, waves gently washing over the shore. The sun slowly sinks down toward the waves, bathing the figure, the clear waters, and everything else around in its warm, orange light. A breeze picks up, causing the palm trees to sway gently. From somewhere in the distance, the faint sound of seagulls can be heard. As time passes, the tide slowly creeps in, covering the soft, pale sand in its clear waters. At some point, the sun completely gone from the sky and the moon high in its place, the surf splashes up against the bare skin, then retreats. A few minutes pass, then it happens again. After a few more instances of this, the time between having grown shorter with each occurrence, the figure rises. Stepping out from under the tree, the moonlight that is bathing the beach exposes the figure to be a male, tall and fairly thin, with dark, shaggy hair that has clearly not been cut for a while. His skin, bronzed with a tan and covered in scars, is mostly exposed, except for the ratty trousers that are preserving his modesty and the bandages wrapped around his torso and upper-left arm, which are stained with dried blood and sea salt. Peeking out from behind his bandages, the top of a tattoo can be spotted on his back, dark against his skin and the formerly-white bandages. He shambles slowly across the sand, the surf nipping at his bare heels, the palm of his left band pressed against his bandaged midriff. Making his way past the high tide line, he collapses to on a boulder, sinking slowly against it to the sandy grass below. As he moves his hand to steady himself, a growing red stain can be seen spreading on the bandages. Shifting downward, he leans his head against the rough surface of the rock, head facing the endless sky above. As the salty sea air stings the cuts on his face, he opens his eyes, gazing into the endless night sky with a pained smile on his face, listening to the screeches of birds as they circle some unseen prey and the soft splashing of waves against rocks on the shoreline. Eyes focusing on something unseen in the sky, he starts reaching up, then stops with a wince. He looks down at his stomach, pressing his hand back to the wound. When he pulls his hand away, it is stained with the red of fresh blood. He tries to gently wipe it clean against the ground, but the dirt and sand just sticks to the mess. Giving up, he gently reclines himself further against the rock once more, looking back up to the moon with a sigh. A moment later, he jolts forward, coughing violently and spitting up blood as he does so. Blood staining the corner of his mouth, he crumples, falling back and smashing his head against the jagged corner on the boulder that he had been propping himself against. His vision slowly clouds over as blood gushes from his new would. Before he fades entirely from consciousness, his eyes focus once more on something invisible in the distance. 

“S-sorry, Luffy. Looks like I won’t be able to join you after all.” He manages to croak out, before the darkness takes over and he knows no more.


	2. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Ace met Sabo.

“Hmmm, not here…” A short boy with dark, shaggy hair not entirely covering the bandage on his dirty forehead rummages through a pile of junk. All around him lay discarded objects, almost covering the ground. Surrounding him are massive towers of everything imaginable, reaching farther than the eye can see. The grey, smog-filled horizon is dotted with such things, all dirty, broken, and/or discarded. Continuing to dig through his pile, the boy carelessly throws the unwanted objects behind him. Suddenly, a loud thud can be heard.

“Hey!” At the sound, the dark haired boy whirls around, holding the object in his hands out defensively, which happened to be a rusty metal pipe. On top of a different heap of trash stands a boy with dirty blond hair. In contrast with the boy’s rugged appearance, he wears a blue jacket, a navy blue top, and light blue shorts that are held up by a black belt with an ornate, golden buckle. The boy is holding one hand against a large bump on his forehead. “What was that for!” He exclaims angrily as he slides down towards the first boy.

“What was what for?” The black haired boy scowls.

“Why did you throw this at me?” The other retorts, holding up an object in his fist, which seems to be a crushed piece of some sort of metal. The first boy swipes in out of his hand. 

“I didn’t mean to, idiot. You shouldn’t have been in the way!”

“Well you shouldn’t be throwing things around! You could hurt someone. And you did!”

“Whatever.” He turned and stalks away from the annoying blond. 

“Hey! Don’t just walk away from me like that!” He goes faster. “Hey, are you even listening?” He hears the sounds of footsteps following behind him, and dashes around a corner, out of sight. The steps pick up speed and the voice behind his goes more panicked. “Wait! Don’t go that way! That’s-” The kid stops abruptly and a large shadow falls over him. Looking to see what happened, he finds himself face to chest with a massive mound of flesh. Grinning darkly down at the dark haired child with a smile full of crooked yellow teeth, the man advances, a large metal bat in his hand. 

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? If it isn’t a little brat who seems to not know the rules of this place. Maybe Remmy should be nice and teach him a lesson.” Coming to a stop right in front of the boy, he pauses, smirking down at the boy who is staring up at his enormous rolls of tattoo-covered fat. The boy glares defiantly up at him. 

“Yeah, right! I’d like to see you try, fatty!” From the relative safety of a long-empty drainage pipe, the blond boy gasps at the other’s sheer nerve as the seven foot tall beast of a man glares down at the child below him. 

“What did you say, boy? Nobody insults Remmy and gets away with it.” He growls as he smashes down with his bat. Ducking under the blow, the boy takes off running, the giant lumbering after him. Dashing down the long aisle created by the piles to trash, he is chased toward what appears to be a dead end. Just before he is cornered, a pale hand reaches out and pulls him to the side. Before him is the blond from earlier, who is crouched in a large pipe.

“Wha-”

“There’s no time! Hurry!” He starts crawling quickly through, without checking to see if the dark haired boy is following. Unsure of whether he should follow, he pauses in the mouth of the tube, until he hears and angry cry and a loud smash right outside. Yelping, he hurries after the other toward the distant light. Popping out at the end, the two start to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that are safe, when something streaks past them, smashing into the ‘walls’ created by the mounds of objects with a loud clang. Before either boy can think or register what has happened, they are both on the ground, the blond underneath the other from where he had been pushed to safety. Right where his head had been just a moment before was an indent in the large metal sheet that he had been in front of. As the two attempted to process what had just occurred, a familiarly large shadow fell over the two of them. There, standing on top of the pipe that they had just crawled from was Remmy. The two share a brief, horrified glance, then bolted upright, sprinting as far away as they could get. 

As they flee, they could still hear the footsteps behind thudding behind them. For almost an hour they kept running, dodging objects thrown from behind, ducking under obstacles and around corners. Adrenaline kept them going, but even that could not sustain two young boys indefinitely at such a pace. They start losing speed, the blond first, followed soon after by the darker boy. Turning around a corner into an alleyway made by the buildup of discarded objects, they pause. 

“I think we’re safe,” pants the blond, already collapsed on the ground. 

“Let’s hope so,” snarks the other, glaring. The blond sat up.

“What is your problem?”

“What are you talking about?” he asks flatly, looking off in another direction.

“Why are you acting like this? If I hadn’t been there, he would have gotten you already!”

“What! I only ran into him because of you!”

“Hey, I’m not the one who went running! And I even tried to warn you!”

“I only even went in that direction because of you.”

“It’s not my fault you threw a can at my head!”

“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even know you were there!”

“At. My. Head.” Their voices grow progressively louder until they are screaming at each other. A dark chuckle from behind them causes both boys to freeze.

“Heh heh heh. Looks like the little brats got into a fight and led Remmy right to ‘em.” Remmy ambles over to the children, smirking. Both boys back up as he advances, cornering them against a wall of garbage. As they step away, the blond steps on a stray board on the ground, falling backward over it. Scrambling to get up and to safety, he misses the evil look on Remmy’s face. As the whale of a man moves to attack the fallen blond, the other boy retreats from sight. The blond looks up, panicking, as the immense shadow looms over him. The fat man’s sweat drips down on him as the grotesquely grinning giant reveals the large butcher’s knife clenched in his meaty fist. Terrified, the boy fixes his eyes on the sharp metal that will spell his doom as the fist lifts up. He flinches back as the hand starts to fall, preparing himself for the pain. But it doesn’t come. Cracking open one eye, he peeks up at his attacker, only for his jaw to drop in shock. 

Between him and Remmy stands the black haired boy, both arms up, pushing the knife out of the way. Shocked by the sudden resistance, Remmy freezes for a moment, but quickly recovers. He tosses the boy to the side, sending his plowing into a pile of metal scraps, and turns back to the blond on the ground. However, using the moment of distraction to his advantage, he is already up and moving back out of reach. Enraged by his prey’s escape, he lets out a howl. In frustration, he swipes at the boy, who dances back from the blow. In his blind desperation to get the boy, he completely misses the other sneaking up behind his, until he is smashed on the head with a steel bar. Screaming in pain, he whirls around, grabbing the brat’s black hair in his meaty fist. Before he can do anything else, a brick whistles through the air, shattering the bones of his hand. Recoiling, he releases the boy, clutching his injury to his chest, and the boys make their escape. Panting, they take cover within an out-of-sight pile of broken and spare parts, and began to make a plan. 

“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” Remmy yells menacingly, searching in the general direction that the boys had run. Still in their hiding spot, they turn to each other as the thudding of footsteps moves ever closer to them, both clenching objects they had liberated from the stacks of objects strewn around their hiding spot . They tense, ready to go, waiting for the perfect moment. The footsteps draw near, then pass them without pause. They nod to each other, then jump out into action with a scream. 

Remmy whirls around, but the boys are already on him. Jumping, the dark haired boy smashes down with a lead pipe. Bringing both hands up to block, the fat man forgets about the other, and so doesn’t defend against the blond who wraps himself around one meaty leg. Yelling in shock and pain, Remmy tries to kick the blond off, but the other swings at him with the pipe again. However, this time he is too slow. Remmy grabs the pipe, stopping it mid-swing, and flings the black haired brat backward, then rips the blond from his leg. Holding him up by the neck, the giant smirks down at the kid. 

“Heh, you brats thought you could stop Remmy?” Just then, he is hit from behind by a brick. Dropping the blond, he whirls around to see, only to be hit in the face with another. 

“What was that, fatso?” 

Snarling in rage, he rushes toward the brat, only for the blond to start pelting him from behind. Whipping back toward the blond, he growls. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, the other slips away with a wink at the blond. Occupied by the blond’s attack, he is completely blindsided when he hears a warcry from behind. Startled, he turns to look, only to grow panicked as a large sheet of rusty, dented metal falls towards him. From above it, he sees the boy with black hair smirking from where he had pushed the metal sheet. However, before he can react, the metal slab is on top of him with a loud clatter. 

As quickly as they can, both boys work to imprison Remmy while he is still trapped. They grab some rope that they had found previously, then stand ready. With a loud grunt, Remmy pushes the metal off himself, bleeding profusely from his bald head where the metal had cut him. Even as he struggles to his feet, the boys are already moving, pulling the ropes around him, so quickly that he has no chance to fight back. Stepping back from the bound body on the ground, the two look over at each other. Below them, Remmy starts to scream.

“Damn you, you little brats! I’m going to get you. I’m gonna go out of this, and when I do, you’ll be sorry. I’m gonna hunt you down, and I’m gonna string you up, then I’m gonna take a knife, and I’m gonna-” He trails off with a scream, moaning in pain as blood drips from his mouth. The dark haired boy looks down at his feet, now with blood on it. Then he looks back at the other boy.

“He was pissing me off.” The blond pauses for a minute, cocking his head, then straightens up and grins brilliantly, showing off the gap in his teeth. 

“We did it!”

“Yeah, I guess we did…” The dark haired boy smiles hesitantly back. 

“Oh!” The blond sticks out his hand. “I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Sabo.”

“...Ace.”

“It’s nice to meet you!” 

“Yeah, you too, I guess.” He ignores Sabo’s hand, until the other boy lowers it.

“You know, we worked pretty well together! We should do this again sometime! I mean, maybe not this exact thing, but we could go on adventures together. We could be partners! I know lots of ways to find money, and-”

Ace cuts him off. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “That sounds like a great idea.”

Sabo beams at him with delight. He reaches his hand out again, and this time, Ace takes it.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm apparently starting a new one... This is just a bit of a teaser-more will be coming soon. But it'll come sooner if I get some reviews (hint hint)


End file.
